Letters: Health care politics has become personal

ROYAL OAK, MI - MARCH 22: People attend a rally for a ballot initiative opposing the new federal health care bill March 22, 2010 in Royal Oak, Michigan. The initiative, sponsored by Michigan State Representative Tom McMillin, is designed to get the State of Michigan exempted from the new health care bill. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

The anger, hatred and bitterness expressed in Tuesday's letters section ["Health care: the horror is just beginning," March 23] clarifies that the reaction to the passage of the bill is more personal, directed at President Barack Obama, than ideological. Soon, after Obama took office, one prominent Republican legislator vowed that his party would make health care reform the new president's Armageddon.

At that time, Rush Limbaugh said that he hoped Obama would fail. After the bill passed he called those who worked to pass the bill, presumably our president and the Democratic legislators, "those bastards." Both Obama and his Republican opponents realized that defeat of his health care reform initiative would severely weaken his overall ability to govern.

Damaging our president's credibility and getting revenge for his victory in the presidential election and his victory with regard to health care reform are the major objectives of their attempts to block passage.

Robert C. Belloli

Placentia

Remember the Civil War?

When one hears about 14 states threatening to sue because of the new health care law, it's impossible not to feel a sense of déjÃ¯Â¿Â½ vu. Consider a time where states threatened to secede from the United States because of conflicting ideals and moral beliefs. Now history doesn't repeat itself but the song that these 14 states are singing sounds shockingly familiar.

The GOP needs to pick its battles. With Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney establishing a very similar health care system in Massachusetts, GOP members may very well soon end up with egg on their faces.

Progress is impossible without change. Let's put aside tired party loyalties and band together as a nation to support the president regardless of his political leanings. No one can predict the ultimate result of what this law will bring, but it is unarguable that the nation has no future without the support of its people.

Alixandria Lopez

Chino Hills

No fear of November

Perhaps the idea of "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" is not yet dead in America. However, we have witnessed the vulgar and hurtful comments made to legislators as they walked to the halls of Congress over the weekend. These Tea Party members and other fringe people are scared that the America of the 1950s doesn't look like their America today. Why? Because we have civil rights, Medicare, a black president and now even health care reform. They cannot bear the change they see.

The fact that the GOP has allowed itself to be complicit in this is even more reprehensible. The Republicans think this is going to help them in November. We'll see.

Denny Osborne

Irvine

President had no choice

Frank Radmacher's letter "Health care: The horror is just beginning" and other letter-writers opposing the new law [Opinion, March 22] are "sour grapes." Partisan politics kept the Republican legislators united in opposing any form of health care reform, leaving no choice for the president to use the reconciliation procedure.

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ROYAL OAK, MI - MARCH 22: People attend a rally for a ballot initiative opposing the new federal health care bill March 22, 2010 in Royal Oak, Michigan. The initiative, sponsored by Michigan State Representative Tom McMillin, is designed to get the State of Michigan exempted from the new health care bill. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
** CORRECTS TO HEALTH CARE BILL, NOT HEATH CARE ** President Barack Obama signs the health care bill, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2006 file photo, then-New York Democratic Representative candidate Michael Arcuri smiles in Utica, N.Y. They helped President Barack Obama deliver his health care overhaul. Now, dozens of Democrats will inevitably be imperiled by the health care vote in an environment where emotions are raw and few are undecided after the divisive debate. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli, File)
ROYAL OAK, MI - MARCH 22: People attend a rally for a ballot initiative opposing the new federal health care bill March 22, 2010 in Royal Oak, Michigan. The initiative, sponsored by Michigan State Representative Tom McMillin, is designed to get the State of Michigan exempted from the new health care bill. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - MARCH 24: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) holds a news conference and rally about the benefits for seniors included in the new health care reform legislation at the U.S. Capitol March 24, 2010 in Washington, DC. The lawmaker and other leaders rallied with members of the AARP and physicians groups to talk about how the new legislation will close the "donut hole" and make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - MARCH 24: Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) speaks to members of the media during a pen & pad session March 24, 2010 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The senator discussed Republicans' attempts to block the Health Care Reconciliation Act. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attends a discussion on how health reform supports America's seniora at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 24, 2010. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)
Senator Chris Dodd speaks during a discussion on how health reform supports America's seniora at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 24, 2010. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)

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